Dessert - Personal Growth
When I started this semester, I had some idea of what it meant to be a teacher from the substitute teaching, Curry's fall semester, 488 observation, and AVID tutoring. Still this semester introduced a lot of new ideas of what it takes to build a classroom physically and psychologically. Growth More than anything else the Classroom Come to Life project has been a vehicle for me to take all the new information and ideas I have learned over the past semester and adding my personality/perspective to it. This has allowed me to write down in exactly what this combination means for how I will approach my future career. I may not be in a classroom right this minute, and a lot of what I have written here may be subject to change, but through this project I have taken the abstract ideas bouncing around in my head and taken ownership over them. Instead of thinking about "a classroom management system" or "some classroom expectations" I have started think of "my classroom management system" and "the expectations for my classroom." With student teaching right around the corner having all of this information becoming part of my identity will be incredibly helpful. Furthermore, I think if I had walked into a classroom to be a teacher at the beginning of this semester, or even a few weeks ago, I would not have been as prepared as I am now. I might have felt prepared, but in reality, my mindset had not entirely adapted to the though this will be "my" class. I'm sure I still have work to do before I totally feel this way, but I think I have started to take big steps in the right direction. Personal Goals The following are the summation of the ideas among my personal goals and action plan at the beginning of the semester. I think the past few months and this project have helped me a lot in determining what it will take for me to achieve these goals in a classroom environment. # Come up with a plan to create a positive classroom environment where students are comfortable enough to learn. # Create a classroom management system to keep distractions at a minimum to allow students the right environmental tone to facilitate learning and growth. # Get to know my students on a more personal level so I can be what they need to succeed in my classroom Goal One: Positive Classroom Environment This is largely what was discussed in Entree II of this project. I have learned that building a positive classroom environment almost entirely revolves around building strong and benevolent relationships. These relationships exist from teacher to student, but they also exist from student to student as well. If there is unaddressed friction between people in the room a positive environment is going to be impossible to create. Without this positive environment students are going to have difficulties learning and growing in my classroom. Of course, this does not mean every student in my class has to be friends with one another. Instead it means students that do not see eye to eye with one another at the very least show each other respect. To make this happen I need to make the effort to get to know my students from day one. I need to get comfortable with them, so that they can get comfortable with me. This involves talking to them about their lives, acknowledging their accomplishments, and always asking them questions. I also need to create activities and lessons that have students interacting with one another one on one and in groups. Doing what I can to get students to work with one another huge part of the puzzle. Through talking about getting to know students in EDIS 5030 and observing in my EDIS 4886 classroom I learned a lot about interacting with students. Asking questions might feel awkward sometimes, but students are eager to talk about themselves. As long as I show them respect, and expect the same in return, getting to know my students is not as daunting as I once thought. Goal Two: Classroom Management One thing I had been worried about moving into this semester was how to keep students from becoming a distraction to themselves and others in the classroom. As a substitute I got pretty good at keeping students from getting too loud or acting out, but not in a way that seemed like they were getting back to learning. In other words, I could keep them in line, but I could not get them to learn. I have learned it is much easier to accomplish this as permanent fixture of the classroom. As the actual teacher of the classroom I have more than just my system of warnings and punishments to help keep students in line. Until I really started looking for it in my EDIS 4886 classroom I did not realize how much positive classroom environments played into keeping students interested in the learning. It is also the reason why Classroom Management: Lessons from Research and Practice have more information in I than just what to do with students who are misbehaving. Getting students to pay attention is about getting them invested in the material and into me by showing them I am invested in their success. If students do not think I care about them there is little warning or punishing I can do that will get them back on board with my class. Goal Three: Get to Know Students Since before I joined the Curry program I knew that getting to know my students was going to be a part of the job, and I was looking forward to it. But it is embarrassing to admit that when I entered my 4886 and AVID tutoring program in the fall it was not something that came naturally for me. It was the juggling of of being an authority figure and trying to converse with them that left me often baffled on how to move forward. The more we talked about it throughout EDIS 5020 and EDIS 5030 the more determined I was to get over this hurdle, and the more equipped I was to do it the proper way. It was not until I became a ELL tutor during this second semester I really put my new tools to the test. It was a bit awkward at first with me asking about sports and hobbies. After a while though it became easier to do, and by the end I got to know my students pretty well. Not only that but I felt myself far more invested in the student's success than I had been previously, and by the end when they didn't need me to read it was a pretty happy moment. Despite being a little sad as well. But it is so much clearer to me now that getting to know students is a two-way street. They are more willing to work when they know I care about their success, and I am more willing to jump through hoops to get them there. It was a big step I needed to clear, but I feel so much more confident in it than used to. Challanges Although I hope I have come a long way since I first entered the Curry School of Education last fall I know there is a lot more left in front of me. I think if I walked into a classroom today I am far more prepared than I would have been only a few months ago. But that does not mean I think anything I am currently doing is the best in every way. The biggest challenge I will face in the coming years of teaching is continuously working on each one of the ideas and systesm I have mentioned throughout this project. I even realize that many of the techniques and systems I've set up are probably not going to be as useful as I am currently inclined to believe. Part of this job is being able to adapt to my surroundings, and not feeling comfortable enough with anything to hold onto it despite signs it is no longer working. Students are going to continue to change in ways that require anything I do now that works is constantly in jeopardy of eventually becoming obsolete. The real way to overcome this challenge is, hopefully, to realize that this is the way education works, and being vigilant enough to realize when it is happening. All I can do is continue working to ensure I am the best teacher I can be for the students who end up in my classroom. Hopefully it is enough. Project Bibliography Barton, Emily & Chiu, Jennie (2017) EDIS 5070: Designing Technology-Enhancing Solutions for Teaching. University of Virginia, The Curry School of Education Lemov, D. (2015). Teach like a champion 2.0: 62 techniques that put students on the path to college. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Pease, Jennifer S & Loftin, Katie (2017) EDIS 5030: Secondary Curriculum & Management. University of Virginia, The Curry School of Education Tomlinson, C.A., & Imbeau, M.B. (2010). Leading and managing a differentiated classroom. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Weinstein, C. S., Romano, M. E., & Mignano, A. J. (2015). Middle & Secondary Classroom Management: lessons from research and practice. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.